The final four…

A three year-long project, which is set to dramatically change the skyline at Chapelcross, has reached a major milestone.

A decade after the iconic cooling towers at Scotland’s first nuclear power station were spectacularly demolished, work to remove the top sections of the last four heat exchangers has been completed.

Chapelcross operated safely for 35 years and the 16 boilers, or ‘heat exchangers,’ played a vital role on the power station – producing steam to drive turbines and helping the site to generate 60 terawatt hours of electricity, enough to power Scotland for one and half years.

The 100ft tall structures, one of the tallest and most visible parts of the site, were dismantled using a giant 750-tonne crane that was followed on to site by a convoy of support vehicles and took several days to build.

The final top ducts were removed as part of the next stage of the project to dismantle all of the external steelwork from the heat exchangers. The project is critical to decommissioning at Chapelcross and moving the site into care and maintenance.

Chapelcross Site Closure Director, John Grierson, said: “This is a very visible example of the excellent progress that is being made in decommissioning the site, using expertise from specialist contractors in the supply chain.”

Local residents will be able to see the cranes from miles around and might be interested in knowing what’s going on at the site, so Magnox has produced a film about the project, which you can watch below.

Magnox Limited is owned and operated by Cavendish Fluor Partnership Limited on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.